


Code Word

by Goldy



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-06
Updated: 2013-07-06
Packaged: 2017-12-17 21:35:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/872198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goldy/pseuds/Goldy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>“Couldn’t we come up with another code word? One that won’t make Fitzgerald roll around in his grave? Like... ooh, I know—‘jelly beans.’”</i> Set mid-Season 2, missing scene from 'The Guest House.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Code Word

The silence between her and Stefan has never felt so heavy.

Elena starts fidgeting, her eyes darting to the car’s clock. It will be another ten minutes before they reach the school, at least. She angles her body so she can study his profile without seeming like she’s staring. His mouth is set in a grim line and his fingers are gripped tightly around the steering wheel. She isn’t sure whether she’s relieved or worried to see he’s obviously feeling as awkward as she is. 

Finally, like speaking is a great effort, he says, “Did I hurt you?”

He meets her gaze once in the rear-view mirror and then hurriedly turns his eyes back to the road. Elena feels something in her chest tighten as his words hang in the air. 

_Did I hurt you?_

It sounds absurd if she’s honest with herself. This is not an exchange she ever expected to have with Stefan.

She gingerly presses a finger against her neck and it’s tender but not sore. She thinks about lying to him, about saying “no” and smiling and letting the subject drop. But that isn’t what they’re built on, so she shifts uncomfortably and says, “A little.”

He nods, in a tense way, and she almost reaches a hand out towards him, almost touches him on the arm and says _it’s okay_. But again, that would be a lie. So she turns her head to stare out the window, swallowing hard and mentally counting down the minutes until they reach the school. It’s never felt so far.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers, and again, the _absurdity_ of it all smacks her in the face. Stefan apologizing. For hurting her. 

She winces and doesn’t respond. But that’s not even what’s bothering her—and maybe it _should_ bother her more than it does, the fact that her boyfriend is a vampire and no matter how much he might love and care for her, he’s still one thousand times stronger than she is. But it doesn’t because it’s _Stefan_ and she knows that it was Katherine and not her and that he would never hurt her on purpose. That’s not what bothers her.

No, what bothers her is that he said “five minutes” and kissed her and he still didn’t know. 

She presses her forehead against the window and bows her head, forcing back tears she doesn’t want him to see. She tells herself to be mad at Katherine (and Damon too, a little bit, for not even taking two seconds to _tell_ them she was free)—because after all, how could he have known? But it doesn’t help and so she folds her knees up on the seat in front of her as if to get as small and as far away from him as possible. 

She can tell he notices because his eyes flick over to hers again in the rear-view mirror and then, obviously irritated with himself, says, “I should have known.”

Elena feels something bubble in her chest—and it comes out as a half-snort, half-laugh. Somehow, Stefan voicing the thing weighing on both their minds breaks the tension in the car. She unfolds her legs and then turns towards him, feeling some of her resentment ebb.

“If Damon had just _told_ us she’d been released from the tomb, none of this would have happened,” she points out. 

“Seriously, who keeps information like that a secret?” he says and then scowls when the car hits a pothole as if Mystic Falls’ shitty road repair is to blame for all their problems. “Seeing Katherine this morning in the entrance way—Elena, I have never been so terrified. The thought that she might have tricked me into...”

The idea of it suddenly hits her in the face and she _pictures_ it—Katherine seducing Stefan by pretending to be her. The image makes her feel sick. She wants Katherine gone all over again, out of Stefan and Damon’s house, out of her town, out of her state. 

She pushes the images away, breathing in and out. Now that Stefan knows she’s back, Katherine will have a harder time pulling the same stunt. 

“You wouldn’t, Stefan,” she says and she _believes_ it, she does. Like Katherine could ever really pretend to pull off what they have anyway. 

“I always thought so,” he says quietly, eyes still fixed on the road. One of his hands settles on the gear shift and this time she _does_ reach out for him, resting her hand on top of his. He smiles and some of the tension seems to go out of his shoulders.

The awkwardness from earlier dissipates and it feels like they’re speaking the same language again, both of them thinking the same thing. 

Suddenly it hits her. “Code word!” she says, making Stefan jump. But she turns to him, proudly biting down on her lip. “Something that only we know. Because you know she’ll try again, Stefan, and if she thinks I’m just going to stand by and let her, she is so wrong.”

Stefan shoots her a look that does funny things to her insides—specifically, things that make her want to tell him to drive all the way back to her place so they can skip school again. No, she tells herself. _Focus._

“A code word,” he says thoughtfully. “That might actually work.”

Elena thinks for a second and then grins. “So let’s say you tell me that _The Great Gatsby_ is the best book that’s ever been written, I will tell you that it’s clearly overrated, and then you’ll say—”

“You clearly have no taste in good literature, Elena,” he says, managing to sound both irritated and amused at once. She raises her eyebrows in a ha-see-we’ve-got-that-covered look and he presses his lips together in what she suspects is an attempt to hide his smile. 

“There, Katherine proof,” says Elena. “She’ll never see it coming.”

“Couldn’t we come up with another code word? One that won’t make Fitzgerald roll around in his grave? Like... ooh, I know—‘jelly beans.’”

“Jelly beans?” Elena repeats. “Are you serious? Stefan, you have no imagination.”

“I remember when they were invented,” he says defensively. “It was very exciting.”

Elena rolls her eyes, “Okay, so we have two code words. _The Great Gatsby_ and.... jellybeans. Maybe I should always say both? I mean, what happens if she gets one of them right?” She pauses. “Am I over-thinking this?”

“Only a little,” Stefan says fondly as he pulls into the parking lot. Elena has to blink a few times—it feels weird being back at school. Like _really_ weird. Shouldn’t there be some sort of excused absence policy for being the main event at a vampire sacrifice ritual? 

“Still--” Stefan continues as he puts the car into park. “It can’t hurt to be prepared. What with this morning....”

“It won’t happen again. It _won’t_ ,” she insists off his look. Thinking about Katherine expels some of her momentary good cheer and she’s back to feeling gloomy as she opens the car door. 

Despite wanting to think about anything _but_ Katherine, she finds herself asking, “Why is she still here? She was free.”

Stefan manages some half-hearted explanation about wanting Klaus dead as much as they do and while Elena tries to see his point, she can’t shake the feeling that they’re only digging themselves an even deeper hole. But Stefan pulls her in for a hug and wraps an arm around her shoulders and she lets herself snuggle a little closer than she normally does.


End file.
